TRAIN LIKE A PRO FOR SUMMER EVENTS

Bill and Naty Nurge are passionate about three things: each other, helping others improve their lives through fitness, and training. They’ve learned—through nearly 70 years of combined racing—that challenges create opportunities for growth, and more space for happiness. Their Fab-5 summer event results—3x 1st place Baldy Buddy Hike; 3x podium- finisher’s of the Hyndman Sufferfest (Bill holds Master’s course record); 1st place 2016 Mountain Warrior Decathlon; 4x finishers of Rebecca’s Private Idaho (Bill holds the course record for the 56 miler); and 1st place Baldy Double (3x) and Baldy Hill Climb (4x)—are testament to their commitment to training intelligently, and for the FUN of it.

The Fab-Five local fitness events are fast approaching and it’s time to mark your calendars and make a plan. Dreams and “bucket lists” are great, but only meaningful when they're converted into goals. A goal is simply a plan with a definitive deadline, like a race/ fitness event!

We—my wife and I—like to think of these events as Fitness Parties; an opportunity to bond and “play” with like- minded TribeMates. Whether you choose to party as a timed racer or untimed participant is incidental. We’re all on the same Team, and we’re all at the event for the same reasons: to challenge our bodies and minds to whatever extent constitutes “FUN” on that day. Herein lies the proverbial rub: what’s fun for us—going hard and fast— may be unrevoked anathema to someone whose definition of a fun event is a happy-paced conversational workout with a friend. Guess what? It doesn’t matter!!!

When you realize that FUN is like beauty—it’s all in the eye and mind of the beholder—it becomes abundantly clear that there is no right or wrong, or more or less. What is right, and what will help you get more fit, is to pick an event—they’re all FUN—put it on your calendar, and TRAIN for it.

OMG the T-word! Training is nothing more than exercising with a goal in mind, which in this case is preparing your body to have maximal FUN at your event.

We get asked all the time what we do for training and the answer is straightforward: we consistently challenge our bodies with a lot of different activities/movements, at alot of different speeds, different durations, and different muscle-tension levels. What’s never different is the fun factor: try to enjoy all of your training, otherwise don't do it! In our case, the cornerstone of our fitness/racing program is what we practice indoors. HardCore Training is what keeps our bodies robust, durable, and good-to-go for everything we do. There is absolutely no way we could have as much injury-free fun in our outdoor activities and events without the strength, power, agility, balance, coordination, and core stability work that is the hallmark of our style of training.

Here is an example of a typical training week for us.

Because every body is different, and responds differently to the same stimulus, the best way for YOU to train may be very different from what works for us.

Let us know if you need help designing a training program that takes into consideration your goals, your injuries, your background, your schedule, your age, your weight, and your LIFE.

GET YOUR SPRING- TRAINING ON TARGET

WITH THESE 5 SUMMER FITNESS-EVENTS

As much as my wife Naty and I love everything about Nordic Skiing, by the time Spring rolls around we're always ready to shift athletic gears, set some new goals, and start training for our summer sports: hiking, mountain biking, and trail running. We’ve found that targeting the summer tness events we are going to participate in helps us stay on track with the types of training that will benefit us most. Setting goals now is the best way to kickstart your Spring Training program and guarantee copious quantities of summer fun and challenges.

Back in the early nineties when I moved to Ketchum, I tried for the first time a series of summer biathlon (running & rifle marksmanship) races. The exhilaration of doing something different—from biking and swimming--coupled with winning a new mountain-bike and 10,000 rounds of ammo—had me totally hooked. Soon thereafter, I took my beginner biathlon rifle and running shoes to the Summer- Biathlon Nationals and unwittingly pocketed $3,000 for 2nd place. Winter Biathlon was not so kind. My two-year old neophyte nordic skiing & rifle marksmanship was good enough for a top- 5 at the ’91 NorAm Championships, but my ultimate goal of competing in the ’92 Winter Olympics never came to fruition.

Although I narrowly missed a berth on the Olympic Team, I learned many invaluable lessons in the process of “failing"

that serve me well a quarter of a century later. I learned that it’s better to have big goals and fail, than have no goals and never know what it’s like to suffer, sacrifice and sweat for something that’s important. I learned that success and failure are two sides of the same coin and it really doesn’t matter which side lands up. The important thing is to earn the coin; one workout, one challenge, one day at a time. Because at the end of the day/year/life, the accolades acquired by achieving your goals are never as important as the person you become in the process of struggling and striving toward your goals.

So let’s say—hypothetically— I’m nordic skiing with a buddy interested in biathlon and I hand him my specialized .22cal rifle and tell him to simply “shoot!” His response most certainly would be “at what?” If there is no target, there is no fun, no challenge, no purpose, no sport. Now if I were to take him to a biathlon shooting range, where there is a specific target to hit, then everything changes.

Now there is something to aim at, something to test his skills, something to measure progress, and something that gives all of his effort – purpose. All by adding a simple target.

That’s what a goal does to a person’s life –it changes everything! If you want to live a fit, healthy and happy life, tie it to a goal; not just your image in the mirror or what the scale reads. You were given one body and one brain for this lifetime and told countless times to “take care of yourself ”, “be happy”, and “live life to the fullest.” But how? Goals are the “targets" that motivate you to focus, aim, and pull the trigger on a process that makes your life bigger, bolder and better.

Sports psychologists like to subdivide goals into three different categories: outcome, process, and performance-based goals.

Outcome-goals are the challenging but fun “targets” that get you motivated to go through the life-enriching processof making your body/mind strong, skilled and durable enough to meet the performance demands of your event.

Naty and I have compiled our 5 favorite summertime fitness events for you to consider as “targets” for your Spring Training.

In addition to being fundraisers, each of these unique events is a fun opportunity to step out of your comfort zone--either as a timed competitor or un-timed participant—and challenge your fitness. The simple act of participating is winning. And all winners are handsomely rewarded with higher levels of fitness, self- esteem, and hopefully some sweet rafle prizes and Perry’s chocolate chip cookies :)

While we would love to see everyone celebrating their health and fitness at all of the local events we understand that sometimes Life and other priorities get in the way. That’s ok, because a goal is not always meant to be reached; it often simply serves as something to aim at. The process of training for your event(s) is where the real magic happens. Whether you choose to participate in one or all of these events, as a timed competitor or untimed-participant, it's all good because ultimately the outcome doesn’t really matter. What truly matters is the process; all of the practice and quality-time spent training with your friends that pushes you in the direction of your goals and makes you better, stronger and happier.

Whereas an outcome-goal such as the Mountain Warrior Decathlon may be months away, process-goals are geared toward the day-to-day/week-to-week training you should be doing to prepare your body for the physiological demands of your event.

One of our most important process goals is maintaining three weekly indoor HardCore Training (core-stability, total-body strength, power, balance, coordination, and agility work) sessions. Although we’d much rather be outside for all of our training, we’ve found that the indoor work has a huge impact on our performance outdoors. Moving quickly, multi-dimensionally, and efficiently over many miles of variable terrain necessitates a high power-to-weight-ratio coupled with an abundance of core-stability and strength.

We rely heavily on body-weight and TRX based unilateral exercises because we need to practice natural movements utilizing the most important weight we all own; our bodies.

Most people/athletes looking to improve their bike, hike and running fitness will benefit more from adding indoor HardCore Training, than simply adding more outdoor cardio hours.

In our outdoor weekly training we strive for one long—2.5 to 4 hours—low- intensity workout, one interval workout— 5x5 minutes at threshold, one 30-60 minute tempo/sub-threshold workout, and one workout incorporating 5-20 second supra-threshold sprints. Performance- goals such as a time-trial or repeat interval workout, serve to measure progress and direct training efforts toward improving weaknesses or technique.

As lifelong athletes and fitness professionals with a penchant for helping people get better we’ve learned a lot over the years. We've learned that people are at their best when they’re fit and overcoming mental and physical challenges on a regular basis. We’ve also come to recognize that most people are not inherently lazy, they simply have weak goals that do not inspire them. And sadly, we understand that most people are their own worst enemies when it comes to consistently training and consequently benefit greatly from outcome, process and performance- goals to stay on track.

Perhaps most importantly, we've learned that we can help people get more out of life if they are receptive to evolving their way of thinking about training and fitness-events.

Feel free to reach out and contact us if you have any questions about the events. Or you’re interested in going through the process of getting into the best shape of your life. You’re never too old, or too out of shape, to dream some new dreams and set some goals that inspire you. Happy Spring-Training!

TO GET MORE OUT OF LIFE

1. Get Strong:

Whether it's charging through fresh powder or chasing your kids around, you need a requisite amount of total-body strength to get ‘er done. Twice-weekly FUNc- tional strength-training sessions will make your body better at meeting the multi-dimensional demands of your life and sports. Just like all of the important things you calendar— hair, nails, dinner, dentist, doctor, automotive—you need to schedule time for your body. Make time to get strong and durable, or make time to manage being weak and injured; the choice is always yours.

Bill Nurge and HVY Med-Ball navigate a slalom course designed to challenge all three planes of motion; forward, lateral, and vertical.

2. Get Zzz’s:

Getting enough sleep is called smart. Not getting enough sleep is called torture. There’s nothing noble about struggling through the day in a sleep-deprived haze of apoplectic exhaustion. And contrary to popular belief, nobody catches up on sleep when they’re dead; you’re dead when your dead. Getting enough sleep every night—or at least most— is the best medicine for everything and anything. Quality of life has little to do with how much you have, and everything to do with how you feel most of the time. Sacrificing sleep for “getting more done” in a day usually means depriving yourself of quality, alert, happy, life-time. Quality vs quantity; the choice is always yours.

3. Get H.I.T.:

Bi-weekly doses of High Intensity Training does wonders for your stamina and happy hormones. You don’t have to go-hard or go- home every workout but you need to go hard enough to get all of the benefits which include increased levels of testosterone, growth hormone and endorphins; all of which facilitate making your body better and your brain happier. Make time to H.I.T. it hard twice a week and you will find your high-end cardio skyrocketing and body-fat % plummeting.

4. Get V.T.:

Vestibular Training—balance & coordination work—is only important if you get out of bed. Most tweaks, tears and pains are the result of not having the kinesthetic where-withal to keep you upright and outof trouble. Having strength & power without balance and coordination is like having a Lamborghini without a steering wheel. Life is infinitely more fun when your central nervous system is intelligent, responsive, and trained to accommodate the complex demands of your sports and activities. Train your vestibular system every workout and you will find yourself having more recreational fun with fewer injuries.

5. Get Challenged:

Your body and brain are at their best when they’re motivated and slightly stressed about an upcoming challenge. Whether its a weekend race or epic week of hili-skiing, get some events on your calendar that get you motivated and out the door to properly prepare your body and mind. There’s a reason why elite athletes are always super-fit, laser-beam focussed, and terminally happy; they’re always going the extra mile to perfectly prepare their bodies and minds for the next challenge. Make time to mark your weekly calendar with events and activities that bring out your best.

6. Get Play Dates:

You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than ten weeks of texting and phone conversations... Scheduling workouts and activities with your friends is all good; more accountability, more work, more fun, more benefits. There is no change without struggle; but it’s a whole lot more fun to struggle with your friends than suffer silently by yourself.

Naty Nurge taxes her vestibular system with a slack line traverse followed by a hand-eye coordination challenge.

7. Get Engaged:

Just like your brain, your body needs to be engaged in activities that are demanding—proprioceptively andphysiologically—and fun. Interactive training that requires your full attention and motor skills always trumps rote movements that don’t fully engage the mind-body connection. Like it or not your body and brain are in a "til death do they part” intimate relationship. Always best to take good care of this power- couple because they’re all you’ve got in this lifetime.

8. Get Happy:

Happy Body, Happy Brain. Life is more fun when you’re lean, fit, and firing on all cylinders. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that fitness training needs to be a monotonous chore. A training regime—regardless of how effective and inexpensive it is—doesn’t do a darn bit of good if it isn’t fun and sustainable. Working hard at something you enjoy is called passion. Working hard at something that is boring or monotonous is called stress. Your body and brain know the difference so find a trainer and workout program that is fun, safe, and fully prepares you for the unique and complex demands of your life and favorite sports/activities.

Have a great mid-winter and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help infusing more happiness and quality-time into your life.

GET SKI PREPPED

11 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO GET READY FOR SKI SEASON.

BY BILL NURGE,

M.A. EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY

HEAD COACH

HARDCORE TRAINING CENTER

GET HELP

No this isn’t a 911 Emergency. But it certainly could be if your body is ill prepared for the rigors of high speed sliding on slippery snow crystals. Alpine & Nordic skiing are two of the most physically demanding sports on the planet which is why you would be hard pressed to find a top-tier skier without a seasoned coach and year-round training program. It’s no secret the best winter of skiing forever follows the best preseason training. Practice getting stronger or manage getting weaker; it's always a choice.

Regardless of your age, ability, or aspirations for on-snow-speed there is nothing better than attaching skis, boots and poles to a body that is physically prepared to do battle with gravity.

We humans have to understand that the omni-present gravity police are simply enforcing—with no malice or forethought—the Laws of Physics; slamming high-speed poorly prepared humans into the ground and trees is part and parcel for the job. So be prepared!!! To maximize the Winter Fun-Factor, and minimize run-ins with gravity, find a strength & conditioning coach/trainer who lives, eats and breathes biomechanics, kinesiology, and physiology; and whose lifelong vocation is making people better, stronger and more durable for their favorite sports. Designing and implementing safe and effective workouts that make your body better—not just tired and injured—and more capable of meeting the incessant physiological and multi-dimensional demands of your winter sports is not something most people are inherently educated, experienced, and trained to do. Find a great trainer and start working together now, to plant the seeds of strength, stamina, core-stability, agility, and balance, so you can reap the fruit of awesome injury-free skiing all winter long.

GET CHARGED

Think of the perfect workout—a mindful mix of high-intensity intervals, resistance-training and multi-dimensional agility, balance and coordination challenges—as the battery charger for your body. Consistently activating and recharging all key systems (muscular, nervous, skeletal, endocrine, cardiovascular, vestibular) is the only way to keep your body functionally robust and optimized for your athletic pursuits. In addition to the concomitant “weak-battery” symptoms--loss of power, diminution of muscle-tone and core-stability, myriad aches, pains, tweaks and imbalances—failure to reboot your systems on a regular basis will ultimately result in the untimely demise of your organism as a whole.

We know that you would love to spend two more hours skiing every week but we also know that the quality and sustainability of your ski performance will be so much higher when you make time to recharge and reboot all of the systems on your body’s hard-drive.

Two high-quality totalbodyworkouts per week will keep you firing on all cylinders andgood-to-go for a winter full of injury-free turns and tracks.

GET KEYSTONED

A stone arch gains its stability from the placement of the final and most important stone: the keystone. Aside from being the key-stone that holds all of the others in place, the word keystone is also used figuratively to mean the most important part of anything Keystone habits are more important than others because they trigger a process that changes your life. Consistent bouts of high-intensity total-body training catalyze a series of chain reactions which influence how you eat, sleep, feel, play, and live; a process that, over time, transforms everything. People who are in the habit of scheduling and attending training sessions every week tend to sleep better, eat better, feel better, perform better and lead more productive lives than those who are "too busy” for training. When you consider that most of our decision-making processes are habit-driven it is abundantly clear that our habits can make or break us. Being in the habit of not—or not properly—training your body for your life and sports will ultimately break you down. Whereas committing to the keystone habit of consistently training all of the systems of your body will make you better and stronger.

GET AGILITY

Being able to quickly and deftly move your body in different directions is super important for skiers. Make time for multidirectional agility training and you will find yourself having more fun with less effort when you play hard in the snow.

GET POWERFUL

A high power to weight ratio is paramount to success in skiing. Its great to be strong but what skiers need most is strength/ speed.

Being able to accelerate and decelerate your body quickly and precisely is what separates the good from the great.

Practice movements that mimic the demands of your sport and perform them at varying rates of speed. Skiing is infinitely more fun when you’re lean and powerful.

GET CORE-STABILITY

Its no big surprise that abundantly powerful arms and legs (coupled with freakish indefatigability) are requisite for high-level nordic ski performance. But as everyone knows a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the absence of a strong and stable core a sizable chunk of the extremity power will be squandered and performance will flounder. Leaking power from a soft-in-the-middle core is anathema for all winter athletes. Train your weaknesses to be strengths and you will be surprised how much your performance will improve.

GET BALANCE

All of the power and core-stability in the world is useless if your ability to balance your body while moving is compromised. Total body dynamic proprioception is integral to success in mountain sports. Train it, have fun with it and enjoy the uptick in your athletic performance.

GET HIGH-END STAMINA

Being lean, powerful, agile and perfectly balanced but lacking stamina is like owning a Ferrari with a VW bug engine… Not much fun. Everyone knows nordic skiers need HUGE cardiovascular engines to support their hard-working hungry muscle cells but what about alpine skiers? Although you might not find yourself skiing aggressively for more than a few minutes at a time your gravity-resisting muscles still have a high demand for oxygen, fuel and waste clearance. The more stamina you have the longer you can ski with control and power; more control and power means fewer falls and injuries. Make time to consistently train your engine and try to incorporate high intensity intervals a couple times per week.

GET ADDICTED.

Whether you’re charging through fresh POW in the Bowls or skate-skiing pristine corduroy at Galena its all pure joy for your brain, body and beast-mode. If you’re lucky enough to be addicted to the beauty of a sport you need to double-down and find a training program that is equally compelling and rewarding. In addition to being fun, interactive and challenging your dry-land training program should provide the specific salutary adaptations that support your sport. When you fall in love with the process of training and getting more fit you will strengthen the relationship you have with your sport and elevate your performance.

Positive addictions like sports and training can enable us to live with more confidence, happiness, and better overall health. If you want a successful long-term relationship with your sport it is vitally important to find a training program that you get addicted to for all the right reasons.

GET ROLLING:

Success in winter sports—which could be defined simply as injury-free big-fun—is multifactorial. Think of athleticism and sports performance as a wheel. The hub is your motivation and drive; important but superfluous in the absence of spokes and a rim. The spokes are the individual physiological attributes necessary for high-level performance in that particular sport; strength, stamina, power, agility, balance, coordination, core-stability, etc. The more sturdy spokes you have supporting your double-helix fortified genetic rim, the more likely you are to consistently roll in the direction of optimal performance. There's nothing we love more than finding new ways to strengthen the spokes of sports performance and see athletes "roll" faster with less effort in the direction of their dreams.

Why bother sharing all of these training tips and insights with you? Because you can't pour what you don't have from an empty cup… Make time to fill your athletic cup with fitness that makes your sports more enjoyable and sustainable. We want you to have the best Winter ever. We want you to feel powerful and most-alive when you slide effortlessly on the most exquisite snow crystals in the World. We want you be be strong and injury-free year-round so you can maximize the quality of your precious time here on Earth. We want you to be the best version of you. Have a great winter and let us know if we can help.

GET A TEAM

If you enjoy playing hard in the snow with your peers you need to train hard off-snow with your peers. Training by yourself--doing the same program over and- over ad nauseum--and expecting a different result will make your body insanely bored and tired.

Every athlete knows that one of the primary ways to get better is to surround yourself with other athletes who push your "best" to new levels.

Not only will the positive pressure from your peers push you to new fitness levels there’s an additional bonus; overcoming physical challenges with your friends creates invisible elastic bonds that cannot be replicated. You can learn more about a person in an hour of training than a lifetime of texting.

SPRING TRAININGDO’S AND DONT’S

Spring is nature’s way of pushing re-fresh and making everything new, colorful, and more alive. This is the perfect time of year to re-evalutate your connection with nature and your body—a time to fine-tune your physical training program to optimize your sports performance, boost your energy level, and make you feel most alive. Over the course of the past 32 years I’ve had the unique opportunity to train, coach, and inspire athletes, of all ages and abilities, to the tune of 50,000+ hours. I’ve learned a LOT about what works--and what doesn’t--for helping people find their eternal Spring: the sweet pain-free physical-state where your energy is limitless and favorite activities are pure-joy.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR SPRING-TRAINING:

Don’t go it alone: For most people—unless your are working with a well-educated and highly experienced fitness trainer or going to a class/training-session designed to specifically meet your fitness goals--going to the gym to “work out" alone, is at best a waste of time and at worst an injury producing debacle. There’s a reason why you don’t see a lot of do-it-yourself walk-in hair salons, dental offices, physical therapy and minor surgical centers; certain complex things—and trust me your body is a lot more complicated than your hair-- are best left to the professionals.

Trying to improve human performance, health, and fitness by designing and implementing the perfect volume, intensity and combination of strength, stamina, mobility, core-conditioning, balance, and coordination to safely and effectively overload your body--to the point where you anabolically stimulate your hormonal system to elicit ameliorative adaptations in your neuromuscular, cardiovascular, skeletal and vestibular systems-- on any given day is not intuitive, and fraught with risk. Which is why the vast majority of people who go to the gym to train themselves fall into one of two categories: Train too easy and too much the same and never improve; Or train too hard and too complex and constantly get injured. For the same reasons you hire professionals to handle your hair, money, car, house and medical, you want a fitness-professional on your team that you can trust with your most valuable possessions—your body, your fitness, your health, your happiness.

Marry your cardio: Unless you betroth aerobic exercise with an intelligent strength, mobility and core-conditioning program your body will more than likely get weak, imbalanced, and injured. There’s nothing my wife and I love more than getting out in nature and hiking, cycling, running and kayaking all afternoon. As much as we would like to simply practice our sports day-in and day-out we know that this will not end well; in the absence of 2-3x/week multi-dimensional strength, mobility and core-conditioning training, our bodies quickly start to flounder. Aerobic conditioning does wonders for the cardiovascular system but falls abundantly short when it comes to taking care of the other important systems and needs of the body. Consistent bouts of high-intensity strength-training will reduce injuries, stabilize your core, improve athleticism and make your muscles more capable—24/7/365- of providing happy-power for your favorite sports. For the same reasons you don’t drive your car without taking care of it—oil changes and scheduled maintenance-- don’t drive your body without doing the obligatory fitness work that enables it to function and perform at its best.

Don’t bore your core: A strong and stable core is absolutely essential for most sports and daily life but not in the way most people think. For starters, the core is rarely used as a power generator so doing dynamic exercises such as sit-ups and back extensions are misguided and potentially dangerous. The torso muscles are more likely to be used as anti-motion controllers—stabilizers—enabling the upper and lower extremities to more effectively produce force. A weak--sloppy and floppy--core causes insidious power-leaks which compromise performance and precipitate lower-back pain. Unless you’re training for a sit-up or plank-hold contest there’s little value in isolating and overloading the core independent of the rest of the body. Core-training should be part of a comprehensive program that builds strength and stability while the upper and lower extremities are dynamically engaged in asymmetrical force production. Schooling the core on how to effectively stabilize--while your arms and legs mobilize--is a one-way ticket to better performance and a happier lumbar spine.

Pick your battles: Closely aligning your fitness regime with the popular tenet “What does not kill you only makes you stronger” will more than likely—if you don’t get injured first-- decimate your fitness, plummet your energy level, destroy your muscularity/leanness, and wreak havoc on your libido. There is absolutely a time and a place for high-intensity training: but too much, too hard, too often will flatline your power output and nullify your passion for anything other than the couch. Finding the right volume of light, medium and high-intensity workouts is not intuitive. In the absence of high-level coaching most well-intentioned athletes will forego easy aerobic-training—huge mistake—in favor of medium-hard workouts and then find themselves too tired to do high-quality interval training; the end result being physiological ennui and lackluster performance. In the same way you don’t need to get sunburned to get a tan, you don’t need to go-hard or go-home every workout to get leaner, stronger and more fit.

Don’t break your fast: Our bodies were designed to go many hours, even days, without food. Fasting before you perform a workout—unless you have medical reasons not to—will teach your body to preferentially burn fat for energy; instead of muscle-sugar/glycogen. This is all good if you are looking to improve endurance performance and mitigate superfluous adiposity. By all means stay hydrated and fuel your body with the nutrients it needs to function. But periodically try performing your morning workout without breaking the overnight-fast and you might find—as we do—that you feel, function and adapt better without consuming any calories (black coffee is fine) for 12-16 hours. And unless you’re starving, try to get in the habit of not eating three hours or more before any workout.

Do the best you can with what you have and let us know if we can help. Don’t underestimate the importance of your health, fitness and happiness in this brief time we have here on earth. Happy Spring!

For more informationcontact: hardcoretrainingcenter.com

"It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" ~Mark Twain

We've got Spring Fever and we want it all.We want to ride, run, hike, and continue to create super FUNctional life altering workout experiences. Without a doubt life is more fun when you're fit. The more fit you are the more energy you have for everything. The more energy you have the more you do. The more you do, the better you feel. The better you feel the happier you are with yourself and others. It's not that complicated but doing the right things for your body and your fitness is more complex than it seems.

Our tagline "Change your body, Change your life" is what we do. We design and implement workouts that change your body from the inside out. We want to optimize the efficiency and performance of all of the system's in your body that are known to Specifically Adapt to Imposed Demands. Unlike a bodybuilder whose primary concern is maximizing muscle size and definition, our definition of "change your body" goes way beyond that. We want to make your heart bigger and stronger, your blood vessels more pliable, your bones stronger and denser, your muscles more capable of producing and sustaining force, your mitochondria more numerous and larger so you can do more work aerobically using fat as an energy source. We want to stimulate your body to produce more Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone so your body is more adaptive and responsive to change. We want to improve the connectivity of your nervous system so you are able to more effectively activate your muscles to produce more force in a coordinated manner. i.e. MOVE BETTER ! In short, we want your body customized, optimized, and aggrandized for YOUR life and YOUR sports.

Hardcore Training is not a fad. It's not something you do because it's cool or "in" right now. HardCore Training is what you do when you want to be your best.It is a commitment you make to your body to do the right things that make it better. It is an investment you make in the unique physical address that you call home. It's all you have in this lifetime and no one else can do for your body what you can. Doing the right things now, investing in your body and physical health now, will pay huge dividends down the road. Pre-habilitation and pre-emptive diligence are always better than 20/20 hindsight. Nothing gives us more satisfaction than seeing you get better and get more out of your life and activities.

As always, train hard 2-3x/week, eat only what your body needs and get enough sleep.

Enjoy your evening and see you at HardCore,

Bill & Naty

ps: Check out this weeks Billy Speed Bag drill. By now everyone knows the 1 rebound fist roll. And the 2 rebounds front/back pattern. And the traditional 3 rebounds pattern. Now we can work on combining all three patterns !

HardCore Training center

The high-mark point total—all 10 events-- went to Naty Nurge with 862 out of a possible 1,000 points. In the competitive division, Carmen Finegan topped the women’s field with 603 total points, and Evan Telford dominated the solo men’s field with 683 points. Rounding out the solo field were David Gilbert (607 points), and Donnie Saver (529 points). Bill Nurge, Muffy Ritz, Brenda Powell, and Jim Lathrop posted highest points (921) for the Team division.

In addition to being crowned 2017 Mountain Warrior Decathlon Champion, Carmen Finegan won the prize—one night’s accommodations at the Limelight Hotel—for most sponsorship, singlehandedly raising $1,850 for Higher Ground. The HardCore Hammer prize for Most Inspirational Warrior went to Sue Engelmann who, due to air travel difficulties, was forced to complete 8 events in one day.

PRIVATE TRAINING is all about YOU... your goals, your body, your injury history, your capabilities on any particular workout day. One-to-One training will move you toward your fitness goals in the most time-efficient and effective way possible. Every minute of your session is specifically tailored to maximize the physiological adaptations that you need to achieve your health and fitness goals. This type of training is particularly advantageous for individuals who have had injuries or have very specific training goals.

SEMI-PRIVATE SESSIONS are the way to go if you're looking for an affordable, effective, and fun workout experience with your peers. You can build your own workout group of up to six people or we can add you to an existing small group. Everyone works at their own level and gets the personal attention they need to get the safest and most effective workout !

ALL GROUP CLASSES at the Hardcore Training Center are intense, effective and fun. Classes are geared toward individuals who are injury-free and have a base level of strength and stamina. Beginning exercisers or individuals with injuries or physical limitations should schedule a private training session to determine if a group setting is appropriate.